Craig, your response just went out to me, and
since it was addressed to all tunas I'll pass it on with a few comments.
You're absolutely right, we (the folks who have
been doing this for awhile, including myself)
have not done a good enough job at explaining the
ins and outs of one design racing on SF Bay.
The qualification rules are based on the fact
that a class must sign up to race at least five
scheduled race days with either one or two races
on those days. To qualify, at least five boats
who signed up to race in the class must race half
the scheduled races. Scheduled race days include
the Vallejo race the first weekend in May (two
days), the ODCA only race days which are
scheduled in the Fall for the following Spring
and Summer, the Second Half Opener, and the
Season Closer. This year there were 19 races on
twelve days. I figured that out by looking at
the ODCA results page on the YRA web site. Each
fleet signs up for the races that they would like
to count as an official 'class' race with the
caveat that they must schedule at least five
races on five separate days. A fleet can also
sign up for other YRA races which are not counted
as class races. For example, the Santana 22
class signs up for Vallejo and the Second Half
Opener as part of the spinnaker series. Fleets
can also sign up for special yacht club or other
sailing organization sponsored races such as
Vallejo 1-2, Great Pumpkin, and quite a few
others, but they don't count as YRA/ODCA qualifying races.
If there are quite a few boats signed up in a
class, qualifying is usually not an issue since
the probability is pretty high that at least five
boats will race half the scheduled races. The
Santanas are in an unusual situation this year
because while quite a few boats signed up, some
(including, unfortunately, myself) didn't
race. I think that gave us a false sense of
confidence at the beginning of the season, and we
didn't track participation as well as we should
have. Hopefully we will do better in 2008.
At 11:16 AM 8/27/2007, you wrote:
>To All Tuna’s
>>After QUICKLY reading Pat’s and Jan’s emails. I
>think for people (say the other 8 boats at the
>nationals) 11 regulars (Tackful, Elaine, Carlos,
>Inshallah etc.)+ 8 irregulars (ie Sweet Reward,
>Smooth and others), it’d be helpful to know
>precisely what you are talking about.
>>What I kind of understand is the following.
>>The organization known as ODCA of which the
>Santana’s sail ‘under’ have to have a certain
>number (#?) of races sailed each year to remain
>as a separate ODCA to race in, right? What is
>that magic #? And furthermore I understand that
>there has to be a minimum of 5 boats at these
>minimum number of races, right? If we don’t have
>5 boats or there aren’t at least 5 boats at the
>minimum # of YRA ODCA scheduled races, we then
>fall out of ODCA and have to sail HDA with other
>similar but different boats, right?
>>Now as a sort of outsider and perpetual newbie
>at racing my thoughts (unasked for I know) are these.
>>Boating is expensive from a hardware perspective
>and time consuming (read away from loved ones who put up with us)
>> * To include as many people as possible as a
> broad statement keeping expenses at a minimum would be helpful.
>I know for a fact that I would like to have
>upgrades etc. on my boat and new sails etc. and
>even more fun to fly a spinnaker. These cost
>money and time
like it or not it’s a fact. Thus
>for the immediate time being, I would promote
>the easiest least costly sailing. I think in
>these circles you guys call it ‘white sails’ or
>using only the class jib and so forth.
>> * To promote then promote again then promote
> once more before we promote a next to the last
> time the races that HAVE been SIGNED UP FOR and
> are Class Association CRITICAL.
>>It may be somewhat boring to the ‘regulars and
>better sailors’ but email AND hard copy mailing
>of the 2007-2008 ODCA racing schedules with
>APPROXIMATE times needed for racing (is that
>race ‘all day’ or is this race ½ Saturday and ½
>Sunday etc.) My ignorant of the facts suggestion
>would be to MAXIMIZE the minimum TIME
>requirements for the ODCA required races
>wherever possible. As experience, excitement and
>enrollment builds then kick in some longer (or 2
>day type races) with or without the spinnakers.
>>> * Suggestions #1 and #2 above would get
> (theoretically) the broadest range of sailors
> out (least need for additional equipment
> beyond ‘stock’ sailing gear and least time away from other commitments).
>> * I have no idea what is required as far as
> time and sails for many of the races, I’d guess
> there are some other Santana owners like me out there too.
>> * What is the Vallejo 1-2 ? What’s
> involved with the Season Opener/Closer the
> various (if any in the Santana ODCA schedule)
> Cups (Lipton, Cappucino and the like).
>> * Lastly from personal experience I can tell
> you I enjoy the heck out of sailing. Racing
> seems to be fun too. However, being thumped
> over and over again gets a little tiresome
> after a while. If it is a multiple race day (ie
> most recently the Nationals) and you finish at
> the end of the pack, it is daunting to catch
> your breath, grab a bite if the next race
> starts too close to the finish of the last boat.
>> * Assign tasks. Yech I can’t believe I said
> that
figure out which Santana owners are near
> Yacht clubs, Marinas where there may be lurking
> the unsuspecting Santana owner. I approached
> two such individuals at the Corinthian Yacht
> Club
one is temporarily living in London,
> England and the other was out of the State
> during our Nationals. I personally have no
> problems telling them (Santana owners) about
> getting out to race etc. In other words
> canvassing the bay area for more participants.
>> * One last suggestion. How about a regatta
> where you mix the crew and boats up? In other
> words I’d be tickled to see Jan Gryier, Shirley
> Bates and Michael Andrews pilot my poor boat to
> a first place finish. Is this something that
> could be attempted? Hell if I know.
>>Sorry for the lengthy note,
>>Again it is clear I’m not clear on the YRA,
>ODCA, concept. I know nothing about the races
>you all are talking about either. The Great Pumpkin? Light Bucket?
>>Sorry this is so long
>>>Craig McDow (Sweet Reward)
>>>----------
>From: tuna-bounces at myfleet.org>[mailto:tuna-bounces at myfleet.org] On Behalf Of Bill Murphy
>Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2007 8:01 PM
>To: tuna at myfleet.org>Subject: Re: [Santana 22] Fleet 1: CityFront
>report, and musings on race participation
>>Jan, thanks for the report. From the back of
>the fleet it's nice to hear what's happening at
>the front. I've worked up a spreadsheet of the
>participation rates of all the ODCA fleets, and
>will send it out after the official results are
>in from the City Front race. I'm not sure
>whether we are counting three or four races for
>the season closer, and that will make a
>difference in the total race count for
>qualifying the fleet. Unlike Vallejo and the
>Second Half Opener, which don't count for
>qualifying our fleet, the Season Closer will
>count since it is a white sails race. If you
>count races through the South Bay race on August
>18th, we have four boats qualifying. For the
>entire season so far, it looks like Tackful,
>Cloud 9, and Tchoupitoulas have already
>qualified for the full season even if they don't
>race another race. Poniente is right up there,
>depending on whether we have three races or four
>at the season closer. Thank you Frank and
>Kathy, Jim, Stephen and Chris, and Javier!
>>As far as the rest of the fleet goes,
>Usquebaugh, Bonito, and Auggie are
>mathematically out of qualifying. Pat can
>qualify Elaine without racing all the races at
>the Season Closer, and I think the rest (Carlos,
>Maguro, and Inshallah) can qualify if they race all the races of the closer.
>>These figures are tentative. Please feel free
>to correct me if you see something I don't.
>>For next year, we should realize that a fleet
>doesn't have to select all the race days
>available on the ODCA schedule. You are counted
>for qualifying depending on how many you choose,
>so there is an option to race just a few of the
>days. I would strongly suggest, for example,
>that we don't pick a race day near the Nationals
>if we discover a lot of boats and/or crew will be going to Santa Cruz.
>>>>At 08:12 AM 8/26/2007, you wrote:
>>>I've almost recovered from Nationals, made it to
>the two great CityFront races yesterday despite
>incredible childcare logistics. We had a great time, here is my report.
> First race: Had a great start, held Elaine
> off at the windward mark to start at the pin at
> full speed only 5 seconds late, but everybody
> else was further down the line and the pin was
> heavily favored. We played the shifts well
> until close to the mark and made it to
> Blackhaller alongside Inshallah and just ahead
> of Tackful. Shirley went right, Cathy went
> left and promptly covered us. It looked like a
> long boring reach to Harding so I exchanged
> pleasantries with Cathy while racking my brain
> for possible passing strategies. Finally a big
> cruising boat showed up on collision course on
> starboard, we both sidled over to the left to
> stay on the windward side and then I decided to
> duck down and get some distance, hoping Tackful
> would be distracted and not follow us. To my
> amazement it actually worked, we worked our way
> to leeward and then saw a tide line ahead that
> Tackful and Poniente (?) crossed first into the
> nascent ebb. We stayed on the flood side of
> the line for a few more boatlengths and got
> through their windshadow, made it to Harding with a few boatlengths to spare.
> Now we get a long boring reach to Ft.
> Mason, right? Well, not quite, folks on
> Tackful were racking their brains too and crept
> up on us. I threw a moderate luff at them to
> keep them on their toes and rattle them, they
> went to leeward and started passing us there
> until we figured out that poling to leeward was
> really faster and copied them. With Carlos on
> the inside we were pretty safe at the mark,
> especially since the right thing to do was
> obviously to stay on stbd and head for current
> relief/building ebb near the shore. And it's a
> short way from Ft. Mason to GGYC, so we were
> able to sit on them pretty effectively and got
> what I think is our first gun of the season.
> Manoevering between races was almost as
> challenging as racing since some Ayedeens
> (skiffs) were racing all around us, with tons
> of crash boats, photo boats and helicopters
> covering the action (way more support/press
> than the skiffs themselves). But finally the
> RC fired off a bunch of guns and we came back
> to discover the Olson 30's had disappeared and
> we were next up, with some strange flags
> announcing the course. Cathy graciously told
> us it was course 22, the confusion was that the
> RC only had one flag 2 so they put in the AP
> instead of the second one. That and losing my
> VHF some time at the end of Nationals made us a
> bit less informed than usual. But we managed
> to start OK, this time headed right after the
> traffic cleared, with most of the fleet to our
> right and Tackful way inside. At first we
> seemed to be doing great, then it got shifty
> and we always seemed to be on the wrong side of
> them, so Inshallah crossed us on the way to
> Blackhaller. But then they overstood the mark
> in the ebb, and we rounded first.
> Next up was an inflatable "NorthWest of
> Hyde Street Pier", the new mark that Pat got
> added to the inventory last year. Of course
> there were inflatable marks all over the place
> being rounded at high speed by skiffs and photo
> boats, but we managed to follow the Olson 25s
> (hi guys, nice regatta two weeks ago, eh?) who
> were apparently using the same course, and also
> followed their strategy of heading outside at
> the top of the run to get good air, then inside
> to escape the ebb after leaving the
> start/finish line to stbd. Elaine tried going
> inside early and ran out of wind, everybody
> else stayed outside and we made some ground
> downwind. The greatest excitement was avoiding
> an outbound ferry who seemed to want to play
> chicken with us on the way to the mark, we
> jybed early and made it plain where we were
> going, they then changed course to stbd to
> track us and we had to go high of the mark to
> keep separation. Probably just wanted to let
> people take photos of us or those darn
> ayedeens, we waved merrily while cursing their
> bloody wake, then jybed back to get to the
> mark. At least they didn't give us five horns.
> Now we had a long beat back up to
> Blackhaller, an Olson 30 (must have decided to
> have just one long race instead of the
> scheduled two) worked their way through our
> weather and we followed, they were far enough
> to wx that there wasnt' much wind shadow. A
> one-tack beat on the ebb, except that our tack
> was a bit too late, we ended up overstanding
> the mark a fair bit, so Inshallah got a lot
> closer at the top mark. But the run was
> basically a shorter repeat of the first one
> (without the ferry), this time we went to Ft.
> Mason again, went right into the ebb and kept a
> loose cover on Inshallah to get our second gun
> of the season. Whoopee! And many thanks to the
> new main and ancient jib (the same one I loaned
> Pariah so they could beat us handily at
> Nationals), our boatspeed was pretty good in
> the moderate to stiff breeze. I know Tackful
> got third in that race, not sure about the
> others as we had to split and go find my kids,
> we had a nice ride back home (though nothing
> like the one after Admiral's Cup), despite my
> misgivings the wind held all the way to the club.
>>So this brings me to the musings part - here we
>have 11 boats signed up for YRA, 19 locals did
>Nationals so we know we have a lot of potential
>racers, and yet only 3 came last week to the
>South Bay, and 6 to CityFront yesterday. I know
>Bill Murphy was planning to race yesterday but
>changed plans after he broke his tiller 20
>seconds before the first race last week (that
>was the blue boat that Chris mentioned in his
>heartrending report of the dismasting). As ODCA
>chair he really want us to get more boats to
>qualify, so he ended up crewing on Cloud 9 (?)
>so they could race, after Usquebaugh was
>mathematically eliminated from qualifying (which
>one does by sailing, or at least starting, 50%
>of the races, for the newbies). And Tchoupi is
>out of commission for the rest of the
>season. But where was everybody else, why are
>so few of us coming out to play in the regular races?
>>I almost wonder if we should sign up for the
>"Party Circuit" next year and only do special
>events like Pumpkin and Fall One-design beyond
>that, but that is really only three weekends
>(Vallejo, Encinal Opener and Summer Sailstice),
>and the Encinal Opener comes close to Nationals
>and hasn't been very popular anyway, despite the
>great party Saturday night. So I am a bit
>flummoxed, musings from others either on our
>listserve or in person at the party Saturday
>night at THE SEASON CLOSER, SEPTEMBER 8-9 or THE
>NEXT SCOMBRIDAE SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23. I hope a
>lot of us can make those two events, after that
>it's only Great Pumpkin at the end of October
>before we're into Xmas parties and winter light.
>Perhaps Pat Broderick or Craig McDow could tell
>us more about the season closer hosted by
>Corinthian YC, and of course our fearless leader
>will be prepping you for Scombridae Sunday.
>>Fair sailing to all of you,
>>Jan Grygier
>Carlos
><mailto:hydrophilos at earthlink.net>hydrophilos at earthlink.net>>>_______________________________________________
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